Amusement Parks in Louisiana

Adventure Quest Laser Tag feeds fun glands in a futuristic facility that houses a 6,000-square-foot, multi-level Mayan-ruin laser-tag arena that provides ample obstacles to duck and dive behind while avoiding the crosshairs of fellow competitors' phasers. You can also choose a session of bumper cars, in which children learn the tenets of seatbelt safety and the lifelong importance of owning a superabundant bumper, or cosmic golf, with nine holes of ancient obstacles illuminated by black light. Adventure Quest Laser Tag provides a customizable day of family fun, supplanting wrestling sessions for the remote control, greased-up chicken-chasing races, and greased-up wrestling sessions against remote-hoarding chickens.

Witches Brew Tours guide groups through a variety of tours that showcase angles of the haunts and mysteries of the French Quarter, where spirits, witches, voodoo, and vampires dwell. Fully licensed guides tell tales of vengeful ghosts and the history of Marie Laveau, the Queen of Voodoo. Guests can participate in walking or mule-drawn-carriage tours through the city’s winding streets or the maze of mausoleums at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

Since 1984, Shreveport has paid tribute to a cherished Louisiana tradition—the crawfish boil—with its annual Mudbug Madness Festival. As many as 56,000 people flock each day to what has blossomed into one of the state’s most popular Cajun festivals, where they nosh on succulent seafood and compete in crawfish-eating contests that encourage participants to test their stomach size and sabotage their opponents by sneaking lobsters into their bowls. “One year, we had a man eat 42 pounds of crawfish in 30 minutes,” marvels festival coordinator Melanie. “We’ve cut it down to 15 minutes since then.” In addition to eating crustaceans, attendees can also lure them across the stage during crawdad-calling contests. “It gets really lively,” Melanie says, describing how the sirens-in-training are allowed to do nearly anything they can think of to entice the crawfish into their reach.

Cajun, zydeco, and jazz tunes waft through the air during the festivities, emanating from three stages helmed by headliners such as Wayne Toups, Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr., Super Water Sympathy, and Windstorm. The rhythms reach the ears of shoppers browsing original artwork and handmade jewelry in the arts area, expanded after previous years' success. On Thursday, local athletes can work up an appetite in the 5K race. Children of all ages burn off energy in the kids' area, where they can somersault in the bounce house, tackle art projects, or plop down in front of a stage where magicians and storytellers keep their young minds off the uncertain fate of lollipop futures.